An estimated 1.4 million women and 700,000 men have suffered domestic abuse in the last year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS data also reveals a hidden link between poverty and domestic abuse, with women living in the poorest households more than three times more likely to be victimsof domestic abuse, including stalking, than those in higher income families.

The official statistics on violent crime and sexual offences in England and Wales, which are published annually, show a positive picture of a steady long-term decline in violent crime over the past 20 years.

The number of violent incidents in England and Wales has fallen from a peak of 3.8m in 1995 to about 1.3m in 2013/14.

With 526 homicides in 2013/14, the murder rate is now at its lowest level since 1989, when 521 were recorded. Gun and knife crime is also falling.

New figures on alcohol-fuelled crime, however, show that the proportion of violent attacks in which drink played a role remains stubbornly at about 53%, as it has for the last 10 years. Alcohol is reported to be a key factor in incidents between strangers, two thirds of which were drink-related.

The publication of the official violent crime analysis coincides with the launch of a £1m project by Cardiff University researchers to develop smart cameras to help detect fights brewing among night-time city crowds on the streets. Alerts will be used to get officers to hotspots as quickly as possible.

Prof Simon Moore of the university’s violence and society research group, said: “Developing smart camera technology that can pinpoint violence is a really cost effective way of helping police to do their jobs. Officers can’t monitor hundreds of city centre CCTV cameras all the time.”

The violent crime figures show that despite the long downward trend in violent crime, domestic abuse remains a widespread problem which affects more than 8.5% of women and 4.5% of men every year, according to results from a special module within the survey.

According to the ONS, 4.9 million women, or 28%, and 2.4 million men, or nearly 15%, have experienced some form of domestic abuse since the age of 16.

The statistics show that a decline in domestic abuse between 2004/5 and 2008/9 seems to have levelled out. Figures have been fairly stable over the last five years, despite repeated police and Home Office campaigns.

The under-reporting to the police of intimate violence remains acute, though there is evidence to suggest a modest improvement.

Police recorded 64,205 sexual offences in 2013/14, the highest figure since 2002/03, which the ONS said reflected the increasingly willingness of victims to come forward.

It said evidence from the separate annual survey of England and Wales that asks people about their experience of crime, shows that there had not been a rise in the number of sexual assaults. If anything there has been a small fall in the number of sexual crime victims rates in the past year.

Interviewers also asked those who had experienced a serious sexual assault since 16 who they had told. A third said they had not told anyone about their most recent experience (33%). Among those who had told someone, 58% said it was someone they knew personally and 28% said they had told someone in an official position.

One in six – or 17% – of sexual assault victims in the latest 2013/14 survey said they had told the police. This is an increase on the 13%who said they had done so in 2011/12 and the 11% in 2009/10. Two thirds of those went to the police said they were helpful but one third of them did not share that view.

The main reasons given by those who told somone – but did not go to the police – were that they were too embarrassed; they did not want to face more humiliation; or they believed that the police could not help. Most of the victims who did not tell anyone said it was because they were too embarrassed.

The crime survey also found that while reporting rates of sexual offences are increasing, attitudes towards sexual violence are still slow to change. Although the majority (66%) of people did not think that victims were not responsible for someone raping or sexually assaulting them while they were drunk, 26% still think that the victim is responsible to some extent if they are drunk.

The size of the minority who thinks the victim is in some way responsible if they have been flirting heavily with their attacker beforehand rises to more than 33%. These proportions have not changed much in recent years and tend to be concentrated in the 16-19 age group and the over 55s.